More than two thirds of people want clear production method labelling on meat and dairy products, a new survey of UK consumers has revealed.
Of 1,990 people polled last month by Opinium on behalf of international farm animal welfare charity Compassion in World farming, some 68% agreed that labels should show the conditions animals had been reared in.
Only 14% did not agree and a further 18% answered ‘don’t know’, the research showed.
The findings coincide with the close of Defra’s call for evidence on method of production (MOP) labelling today.
“These poll results demonstrate that the overwhelming majority of British people want clear labelling showing how their meat and dairy was produced, in the same way that eggs are now labelled with the method of production,” said Nick Palmer, the charity’s head.
“Compassion in World Farming has been calling on Defra to provide MOP labelling for some time and these results show that the British public would welcome seeing more information on their meat and dairy that tells them how the animals were reared.
Why are Lidl’s new method of production meat labels proving controversial?
“We now urge Defra to act on these results and to ensure that MOP labelling is extended to meat and dairy products.”
Proposals for the introduction of method of production labelling have been floated on a number of occasions over the past five years.
In 2018, French supermarket giant Casino teamed up with Compassion in World Farming to launch the country’s first method of production labelling scheme.
Lidl followed suit in 2019, becoming the first supermarket in the UK to carry method of production labelling on its fresh meat products, after launching a trial on packs of fresh chicken.
The retailer consulted with Red Tractor, Compassion in World Farming, RSPCA and the NFU on its labels, but critics argued that production standards were complex and nuanced and warned they couldn’t be “neatly divided into categories”.
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